ELGIN — A quick start and a fast finish propelled Elgin Public-Pope John to a decisive 69 to 65 victory over O’Neill St. Mary’s Friday night.
Playing their last regular season home game, the Wolfpack defeated the top-ranked Cardinals, avenging an overtime loss at the NVC Tournament weeks ago.
The Wolfpack jumped out to a quick nine to zero lead before Gage Hedstrom got the Cardinals on the board to start the game. Turning in his best performance of the season, junior Jarek Erickson had seven of EPPJ’s first nine points and added an assist to Max Henn to account for the other two points. Senior Dylan Kolm who finished with 10 points in the quarter and 23 in the game.
The lead would grow to 17 points before St. Mary’s put together a run. Hedstrom would score the Cardinals last eight points of the half to make the score 37 to 29.
The lead hovered around the 10-point mark in the third quarter.
The teams traded baskets in the fourth quarter before a three-point play by Hedstrom pulled St. Mary’s to within six with 5:42 left in the game. The lead then shrank to three points on a tray by Logan Brabec.
….see more at this week’s Elgin Review.
